The present invention relates to an electrical connector, particularly an electrical connector having a housing which may be used in a variety of positions.
Electrical connectors, particularly those utilized to interconnect printed circuit boards with other printed circuit boards, are well known in the art. Typically such connectors comprise a housing made of plastic or other electrically insulating material having a plurality of electrical contacts mounted in the housing. The electrical contacts are formed such that contact tails extend from the connector for attachment to the printed circuit board.
The great variety of electrical devices utilizing printed circuit boards in use today requires electrical connectors to be used in a variety of orientations. The interconnection of the printed circuit board with either another board or a cable may require the female portions of the connector to have a horizontal orientation, while in other instances, it may be necessary for them to be oriented vertically. The prior art typically required separate connector housings to be utilized to each orientation of the connector. The requirement for separate housings has served to increase manufacturing costs for the connectors and has increased the inventory problems of the users of such connectors since they are required to have separate connectors for each orientation.
The prior art devices have also evidenced difficulties in inserting the contact tail portions of the connectors in a corresponding female connector. Typically, such connectors have a large number of connector pins and connector tails. Due to the small size of the connector pins and the corresponding tail portions, the tail portions are usually very easily deformed. Obviously, should a number of the tail portions become deformed, the connection between the elements will be rendered difficult, if not impossible. The prior art has attempted to overcome the problem or deforming or movement of the tails with respect to the housing such as "floating" by providing them with stiffening ribs. However, the ribs have a tendency to weaken the tails causing them to break rather easily.